Japanese troops from the Western Area Infantry Regiment are assaulting the green hills of Camp Pendleton in operation Iron Fist.

For a month, about 200 Japanese troops are training with Marines -- leading to a â€œfinal examâ€ where together they will launch a mock amphibious assault against a common enemy.

â€œBoth sides are teaching and learning from each other,â€ said Marine Col. Michael Hudson, commander of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

This is not the first time Japan has sent troops here for training, but this yearâ€™s exercise appears larger, more militarily robust. Tanks are being used for the first time.

Japanâ€™s latest defense policy calls for a new concept, called â€œdynamic proactive defense,â€ said Akihisa Nagashima, lower house member of the Democratic Party of Japan and former parliamentary vice minister of defense.

Japanese troops, he said, will need to be â€œmobile, flexible and ready to respond quicklyâ€ -- the kinds of skills that Marines are known for. More training exercises with Marines are likely, Nagashima said.

Although Japanâ€™s Cold War strategy focused on the Hokkaido region of northern Japan, the new policy includes a greater focus on the South China Sea and the western Pacific, including sending troops to Japanâ€™s southernmost island of Yonaguni to â€œreclaim control of any island should the need arise,â€ Nagashima said.

Japanâ€™s post-World War II reluctance to develop a military is waning in light of increased tension with North Korea and China, said Ellis Krauss, professor and Japan expert at the graduate school of international relations and Pacific studies at UC San Diego.

The amphibious assault training, Krauss said, is most likely preparing Japan to â€œrush to the defense of its many relatively unprotected southern islands in case the Chinese or North Koreans try to take them back.â€

For Iron Fist, the Japanese brought their own Toyota-built trucks and Humvees. The Marines are supplying tanks and rotary-wing aircraft. Officers receive a combined briefing each morning, with translation. The two forces eat in the same chow hall.

The Japanese troops went to San Clemente Island for live-fire training and also deployed to the â€œInfantry Immersion Trainerâ€ on Camp Pendleton, a faux Afghan village complete with role players and simulated roadside bombs.

The final exam, set for early March, will be a weeklong, ship-based exercise involving troops from both countries coming ashore at the beaches where Marines trained for the World War II landings.

It is the kind of training that would be useful if the Japanese needed to move quickly to one of their islands and set up a defensive perimeter to repel an assault, Hudson said.

The Japanese â€œwant to develop the capability to deal with any threat to defend our country,â€ said Maj. Kuzuya Ono as he watched his troops working in coordination with Marines driving tanks.

Considering that it was the americans who indirectly wrote part of the constitution, is it ironic that they are now helping them? Is a constitutional re-write in the works? Definitely a signal of intent!

Considering that it was the americans who indirectly wrote part of the constitution, is it ironic that they are now helping them? Is a constitutional re-write in the works? Definitely a signal of intent!

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Japanese have started to abandon their pacifist constitution with USA' s blessings, it give the Japanese a new independence in their internal security and it gives USA a new market to sell to an ally,a win -win situation for both a difficult situation for China and North Korea.

BEIJING--Japan is coming under renewed pressure from China and Russia as those two nations, while signing a joint statement marking the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II, hinted at possible solidarity in their territorial claims against Japan.

The statement came amid rising tensions between Tokyo and Beijing over the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, triggered by a recent collision incident between a Chinese fishing boat and two Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels in Japanese waters near the islands.

In Beijing on Monday, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev inked a joint statement on the 65th anniversary of the epochal war's end. The document affirmed that the two nations are "in a position very close to each other" over the outcome of World War II and the lessons learned from it.

According to the Russian Presidential Palace, the statement said the two nations express their close position on the results and lessons of the war and condemn attempts to falsify its history and make heroes of the Nazis and their allies. Adopting the statement, China and Russia, each of which have friction with Japan over territorial issues, took a concerted action to apply pressure on Japan.

On 10 February 2011 Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev called for increased military deployments on Kuril Islands. In making the statement, Medvedev said the islands were an "inseparable" part of the country and a strategic Russian region. No direct reference was made to what military equipment would be deployed on the islands, although the Russian RIA Novosti news agency reported that the new Mistral-class amphibious assault ships, being built in a deal with France, would be deployed to the region.[41] On 15 February 2011 plans for deploying advanced anti-air missiles systems on the Islands was announced.

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In Russia most of the population, as well as the mass media, strongly oppose any territorial concessions to Japan.[45] A common view[45] is that Russia won the Kuril Islands during World War II and is entitled to keep them regardless of the prior history of the disputed territories. Many[45] believe that taking these islands away from Japan was a just reward for Russia's sacrifices during World War II and for Russia's agreement to enter the war against Japan at the request of its allies. The attitudes of the Russian public have hardened in the 2000s.

The AFP reported yesterday that South Koreaâ€™s subway system were forced to remove adverts for Japanese condoms amid increasing public anger over the Dokdo/Takeshima island disputes.

According to the report, 200 ads for Okamoto condoms, not depicting condoms but containing the slogan â€œNo. 1 in Japanâ€ were removed just five days after being posted.

â€œThere were public complaints about promoting Japanese condoms and we immediately took action,â€ Seoul Metro spokesman Kim Jeong-Hwan told AFP. He says that there would not have been complaints had it not been for the island dispute issue flaring up again.

Obviously the fact that it was an advertisement for condoms is great for the media, with these newspapers and broadcasters having already picked up the story:

However, an even gorier story appeared around the same time. According to The Standard, about 40 military veterans staged a protest outside the Japanese embassy by cutting off the heads of pheasantsâ€”Japanâ€™s national bird. Apparently they then dripped blood onto Japanese flags and on pictures of PM Fukuda. It gets worse. The article claims that some of them even â€œbattered birds to death with hammers. Others cut open bellies and ate the livers, shouting: â€œDokdo is our territory!â€

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The territorial dispute is a major source of nationalist tensions. Many Korean nationals have placed the dispute in the context of the history of occupation, so that ceding the territory to Japan would be an unthinkable affront to national dignity: a renewal of past Japanese subjugation.[64] Korean tourists visit the remote, inhospitable island, in order to show national solidarity.[64] In Japan, schoolchildren are instructed that the islands belong rightfully to Japan, and in 2005 Japanese officials declared "Takeshima Day", to highlight their territorial claim to the islands

Correction guys.. the Japs have a very powerful industry and hi-tech weapons capability already. Now with Unkil's blessings, Japs would move into fighter jet making and more advanced weaponry. This was coming soon; it was obvious. US cannot defend anybody right now militarily with their economic condition and hence they don't want to leave other countries in a lurch in their alliance. So how best to combat it? Allow them to re-write their constitution.

I am sure that the new Japan will not be imperialist, but strong enough to hold on its own. Remember, Beijing might be far away from us in its "safe Han land" but it is just around the corner from Japan. And CCP knows that Japanese have the technology to make nukes on short notice in large numbers. Hence the reason why all their technological big gizmos are pointed towards east and little against us. Though infrastructure in Tibet makes it needless for them to station troops near us.

Apart from a formidable Navy, Japan requires hi tech weaponry to keep China at bay aimed at the Chinese second echelons and the reinforcements in case of an attack.

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Sir, actually, the Japanese Self Defense Force has the most hi-tech weaponry in Asia, in all branches of its defense forces, as most of it is American supplied. Their navy is quite formidable for its size and much more advanced than the Indian navy for that matter, regardless of size. Plus, their training is on par with the Americans, since they have been training with them for decades.